Nothing sparkles quite like Crystal !

Well almost nothing, perhaps diamonds but we need to wait a little longer for that one. Yesterday we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. I know, hard to believe that much time has already passed. That day seems so long ago now, a hot summer afternoon in Northampton when I had significantly more hair, and some room to spare on the waistline. How far we have all come in the meantime! Our big trip to Colombia for Sebastian became our gift to each other, although we have just booked our 10 day ‘excursion’ to San Andres island for August 18th which will be a belated celebration and gift to ourselves. The beach at last!

            

The young lad is eating up a storm at the moment, we cannot get enough into him during the day to get him sleeping through the night, although his teeth are also bothering him a lot right now. We have a swing and jolly jumper at the house which he is using, and enjoying, check it out! I think the lad may also have Harries ears bless him!

      

Tantrums, Teeth and Tigers!

It’s been almost a week now since Sebastian joined our merry little band, and I’d love to tell you about all the big adventures we’ve been having but the truth is we’ve stayed quite close to home to give the lad a chance to settle in. Everyone needs a chance to get used to each other, especially Charlotte who is finding it a little hard playing second fiddle. Concepts such as ‘sharing’, ‘be gentle’ and ‘give me a minute and I’ll be with you’ all take a little while to sink in. She’s been great overall, only the odd tantrum and the occasional profound comment to keep us smiling. Still just about happy to be a big sister!

As for the big man, well his arrival with us has coincided with teething. His bottom two pegs are coming in and he’s generally not happy about it. With his fair skin his cheeks are bright red, and he’s pulling away at his ears. His schedule is getting us up at 1-2am for a bottle, which is a habit we have acquired and need to work on breaking. Other than that he goes through until 6.30am when his sister wakes up, when they start the day watching Wonder Pets in Spanish!! He is eating some soft foods now, fruit, mashed veggies and cookies which we love to smush. We LOVE our bath, he goes absolutely nuts, so much so that he has left us a little gift in the tub the last two times! He’s generally a happy lad, but he needs to be busy, busy as he is currently a very frustrated crawler. He is quite different to how Charlotte was, a little less independent and by the admission of the foster mother he was utterly spoiled for six months and mostly in female company, quite the ladies man!! He’s quite serious, and we have to work hard for our smiles but he’s getting used to us now and gives up some really gummy smiles.

 

We haven’t gone too far out of the local area, but we are planning a few more trips as we get used to lugging the world around with us when we go anywhere. The taxis here are tiny, so it’s funny to see the look on the taxi drivers face when we flag one down. Since we really don’t speak any Spanish it’s kind of pot luck where we will end up! Yesterday we did take a day trip out of town to what can be loosely described as a ‘theme park’. A very unusual park donated in the name of a famous Colombian aviator. With attractions such as a life size replica of the Taj Mahal, a naval battle cruiser (goodness knows how they got it this far up in the Andes), and a reasonably well stocked zoo it was quite the mish mash. We all had a fun time, despite the hour of solid rain which forced us undercover.  The animal highlights had to be the Bengal tigers and the close up encounter with the emu! 

Up to now there have been a couple of other families staying in the pension, but the last left for home today so we are now the only people staying here. The last Canadian family was here almost 10 weeks!! We are hoping things will go a little smoother and we can be home at least by the end of August. We have a meeting tomorrow with the Colombian organization who oversees every adoption that takes place here. Once this is complete we will be waiting for our legal judgement to be finalized which will take a number of weeks. In the meantime we will plan a trip north to the beach which should be an ideal way to pass some of the time, and I will also try and meet up with a Welsh friend of a friend who is currently living and working here in Bogota.

Thanks to all those who have posted to date we love to read them, please keep ‘em coming!!

Here comes the son!

The sun shone brightly as we wound our way up into the hills this morning. The taxi ride is always an adventure, but our stomachs were in our mouths just a little bit more this morning! CRAN is situated in the hills overlooking the outskirts of the city. The view is incredible but seeing all the children tugs at your heart. We had several formalities to complete, one of the most important was meeting Sebastian’s foster mum. We cannot thank her enough for taking such good care of him, and giving him such a good start. Formalities over, we finally met our beautiful son. Words cannot describe the immense joy we felt when finally we met, but I think the following video clip might give you an idea.

Well it is the end of a busy day and all is finally quiet with both monkeys asleep! Tomorrow we begin our new adventure as the fantastic four!

Introducing...in the blue corner...weighing in at 19lbs...from Bogota

Fiesta Colombia!

Wow, another two days have passed already and we are definitely creatures of habit. We have spent our days drinking coffee, and eating… and eating!  We have also managed to squeeze in a couple of games of international soccer. The rules were a bit sketchy and the ball had a habit of landing in the trees, thanks to the Spanish contingent. For those that are interested in the weather here, it might surprise you to know that despite the fact that we are close to the equator because we are sitting at almost 9,000ft it is quite cool, in the 60’s most of the time, with quite frequent rain showers. Probably like being in Vancouver, or perhaps Montreal at this summer’s peak!

 

Today is Independence Day here in Colombia, the flags are out in force and we are expecting the locals to be making lots of noise this evening as they celebrate their break from Spain in 1810. A great excuse for a parade and some fireworks! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so, tomorrow really is the BIG day. We go from three to four, just like that! The handover is scheduled for 9.30am, a long time in the preparation it is quite the surreal experience to be part of. We are not expecting a great deal of sleep tomorrow as we all get to know each other. It’s all been leading up to this so cross your fingers!

Please keep your comments coming, we love to read them. Thanks for staying in touch.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Grandpa John

Make a Smilebox greeting

First days...

Well here we are again..... after a not too bumpy flight from Toronto, on one of Air Canadas finest!!!, we landed in Bogota. Crazy arrival, lots of people, a band playing, and lots and lots of luggage. We linked up with Flor and made it to the house, tired but happy to be back.
Spent our first day unpacking, eating, eating and shopping!!!

Charlotte has made friends with the other children here, language doesn't seem to be a problem, we can be bossy in any language!!

Hopefully we can set some trips up over the next few days, weather not great, but we need to keep busy- especially madam.

Thank you to all who have posted a comment, we love to read them and keeps us in touch with home. Going to try and get lots of rest before we pick up Sebastian- we just have to convince Charlotte it's good to sleep all night.

Big sister…been there…done that!

Hi, I’m Charlotte and I can’t wait to meet my new little brother in Colombia. We are going to have so much fun together.

The last time I was in Bogota was in 2006 when my mum and dad came to collect me. I’ve grown a lot since then, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Colombia again and meeting all the people who were so nice to me last time I was there.

 

Begin….at the beginning

Testing testing 1…2…3

This is the lad himself, Sebastian at 6 months, we are so excited about going to pick him up. Off on another adventure!!

G, E and C